Skates Bites: Was That… A Complete Effort?

Goals! A win! Tending of net! JVR’s bro…. OK, well three out of four ain’t bad.

To be honest, I saw very little of last night’s game. I was invited to a party (not a pants party… also, not in my basement). The folks over at Xfinity Live! (exclamation pointzzz) were hosting a “champagne and hard hat tour” of the entertainment complex which will open later this month.

One generally thinks “fancy” whenever you throw the word champagne into a party’s name. So, to me, your friendly neighborhood blogger, that meant strategically ripped jeans and a white v-neck under a button-down shirt… or, as I like to call that particularly douchey ensemble– Jeff Carter.

I was underdressed.

I wasn’t more than 10 step in on the newly paved cement before I noticed all the black cocktail dresses (+1) and Euro suits. This wasn’t quite the crowd that me and my torn jeans were expecting. Luckily, I ran into The Mighty EROCK (@TheMightyEROCK), who is perhaps the city’s number one Eagles fan and the gameday entertainment czar (unofficial title) of Xfinity Live!, and 97.5’s Tim McManus and his friend, both of whom were also wearing jeans. I think I’ll hang here.

XL is coming along nicely. The 32-foot HD screen is installed (picture here) and some of the fixtures are in-place. Last night’s fancy-pants crowd was strategically selected: You see, for XL to work, the place can’t be filled with meat and jarheads singing the Eagles fight song 24/7. With the high-end steak joint and bottle-service areas (yep), the place is going to have to attract a slightly, um, more refined crowd, too… which explains last night’s event.

Anyway, they were handing out free passes to the Cadillac Grille so attendees could take a quite convenient shuttle bus over to The Well for the second half of the Flyers game. McManus, his buddy and I bounced to the friendlier confines and got drunk while watching the Flyers beat up on the Islanders, 6-3.

How’s that for burying the lede?

Claude Giroux had three assists. Some factuals courtesy of the Flyers’ city-leading PR department:

Claude Giroux recorded three assists tonight, giving him 52 on the season. That breaks his career high of 51 set last year. He is the first Flyer to record 50 or more assists in two consecutive seasons since Mark Recchi did it in 1999-2000 (63) and 2000-01 (50).

Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Giroux is just the fourth Flyer to record 50 or more assists in two consecutive seasons:

Peter Laviolette once again had to burn a timeout because of an early goal. Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell had decidedly different takes on the message.

Jagr:

Q: How angry was Lavy there, after that first goal when he called the time-out? Nine games in a row you guys have given up the first goal.

“He wasn’t mad, he was positive.”

[laughter]

Q: Really?

“He said ‘please guys let’s play well’”

[laughter]

“It was a good speech. He tried to be positive, he said please guys, let’s play our way”

Hartnell:

Q: On Laviolette’s first-period timeout

"Yeah I think he probably leads the league as a coach in the NHL with time outs in the first 3 minutes of a game. Our starts have been absolutely horrible. It seems like we're giving too much early. It takes us 10 minutes to get into the game. His point was pretty clear. If you're not playing you're not going to play. You don't want to get sat first period 5 minutes into the game because you won't get back out there. The message was clear. The message was received and he maybe has got to say that in the pregame meeting before the game."

Maybe.

JVR broke his foot. That’s bad. But, he’s been nearly invisible for most of the season and has been struggling with some sort of a hipish ailment… so, perhaps, the rest will do him some good come playoff time.

Finally, part 2 of Scott Hartnell’s BlackBerry promotional video jammy jam was released the other day. Here’s video of Hartsy filming his teammates before the Winter Classic. The best part is clearly when Jody Shelley introduces Bryz as “the backup goalie.” Video after the jump. Full Flyers game notes and highlights over on the deuce.

Kyle Scott is the founder and editor of CrossingBroad.com. He has written for CBS Philly and Philly Voice, and been a panelist or contributor on NBC Sports Philly, FOX 29 and SNY TV, as well as a recurring guest on 97.5 The Fanatic, 94 WIP, 106.7 The Fan and other stations. He has more than 10 years experience running digital media properties and in online advertising and marketing.

Jagr also said (jokingly) that they should put Bob in for the first shot and then switch to Bryz because the first shot keeps going in. HA!
Anyway, @Small testicle Harry – let me know the date your doing that… I’d like to join you!

Far from a complete effort. 3 goals because of awful D again.
I love how when this team scores a lot everyone just forgets about all the bad things that happened in the game.
Play that way against a playoff team and your walking out of there with a loss.
Dont get me wrong a win is a win but they need to start cutting down on the mistakes. Especially come playoff time when games are 2-1 and 3-2.